Don't Say It
by bHaribo
Summary: Just before the Battle starts, everyone is saying goodbye. Just in case. There's no need to though. They'll all be alright. They'll all come back, when it's over.   Fred and George's last moments together, their last goodbyes.


**Hey.. ;) I got the idea for this when I was listening to _The Call_**_, _**from Narnia.. The song had been nudging me for a while and I had a million ideas, for it, most of which had been written down but never actually went anywhere. I was on the plane from Rome when it came up on my iPod, and I'd been reading a fanfic which I'd saved on my laptop (heehee :) sneaky me), and I read Gred and Forge's names and I came up with this.**

**Anyway... enough of my rambling. Hope you like it! **

The horde of students started to pour out of the Room of Requirement, he reached out to his grab his twin's arm.

"Hey." He said, pulling him to a halt. Fred cocked his head to the side, waiting expectantly for the reason why his twin had stopped him.

"What's up?" he asked, and when George didn't reply, he gave a slightly over-exaggerated sigh.

"C'mon! We need to get to the Great Hall or we'll miss all the action!" he turned around and started to bound off down the corridor, his flaming head bouncing as he sped along.

"Wait! Fred!" As his twin turned, George felt a lump form in his throat, and, for what seemed like the first time in his life, he couldn't seem to find any words that would come out. He looked into his brother's eyes and saw every emotion that he himself was feeling.

Love, hope, excitement. That was all there. But there was also fear, fear for their friends, their families, fear that they didn't want to show, fear that they wouldn't make it through the next few hours, fear for each other.

"We'll be alright Georgie," Fred said with a soft smile - and George couldn't help but grin at the nickname that he hated, and that only Fred could call him - "We'll all come back, just like always."

Fred walked up to him, and gripped his arms. He stared into his twin's eyes, and George got the feeling that he was trying to convince _himself_ of what he had just said, as much as he was trying to convince George.

"If I…"

"DON'T!" The grip on his biceps had suddenly become almost painful, and Fred's head was bent, and he was shaking very, very slightly.

"Don't. Don't say it." He looked up, and at that moment, George knew that Fred wouldn't be able to handle that possibility. And that he would do everything he could do to cling to the hope that they would all come back safely. And that he would try and convince George, to convince himself, because they would always believe what the other did. They were twins, and they would always stick by each other, in their beliefs, decisions, whatever.

And George let him. Let him convince him that it _would _be OK, that everything would be as it once had, once everything was over.

"There's no need to say it George. We'll all be alright. We'll come back. Once it's over. We _will_ come back, Georgie." He saw him swallow, and then, as if it were choreographed, as if there was a mirror that showed them their movements, they crushed each other into a tight embrace, and each could feel the other's fists against his back, could feel the other's ragged breaths as they struggled to hold in the tears.

And when George opened his mouth to say something, Fred got there first.

"Please… Don't say it." His voice was choked, and George felt the lump in his throat get even bigger.

"I love you Fred."

"Love you too you great lump." And as one, the identical faces broke into a smile, and they squeezed each other one more time before letting go.

"We'll come back," said George, saying it like a mantra, like it would prevent anything bad from happening.

"When it's over," Fred whispered, and his eyes locked with his twin's, and he nodded, acknowledging all the things that George wanted to say, but couldn't get out, and, as one, they turned and bolted down the corridor to the Great Hall.

* * *

After the speeches, and the evacuation of the under-aged, when Fred and George went off together with Wood, Katie, Lee and a load of others to protect one of the entrances to the castle, they were still mentally chanting their mantra. It gave them strength, and they told it to the rest of their terrified group.

And as the first wave of Death-Eaters started crashing towards the castle, they shouted it as one, and as they dueled, they were still chanting, _We'll come back,_ over and over again.

Then, as they sprinted away, in different directions, to find more bad-guys, Fred looked over his shoulder at the twin he considered part of himself, his other half, and saw him looking back.

George grinned, and lifted his hand, waving as he ran.

"SEE YOU LATER FREDDIKINS!"

"YOU TOO GEORGIE!" He bellowed after him, and heard his familiar cackle before the reality of the new battle he had just run in on engulfed him, and he began firing spells everywhere, his mantra repeated over and over in his head.

In the few minutes after he had been separated from his twin, he only wondered once or twice where he was, and if he was OK, because when you're in a battle, you don't have time to worry about others, or even yourself. You're a machine, acting almost purely on instinct, working to make sure you'll survive the next minute, and that the people you're fighting with will too.

And then, when Percy came up behind him, and started the first, friendly conversation they had had in _ages_, he felt unbelievably happy. Perce was back, they would all be alright, and his mantra was going on in his head.

As he laughed at Percy, and fired spell after spell after spell at whichever Death Eater happened to be in front of him at the time, he continued to chant, believing with all he had that they would all be alright, and it would soon be over.

Then, he heard the bang, and heard Percy's scream. His last second seemed to last eternity. He felt the wood of his wand leave his fingers, felt his feet leave the floor, felt the adrenalin rush through his veins, felt his heart thud against his chest, felt his last breath enter and leave his lungs as he finished off his laugh. A face swam into his mind's eye, a face that looked exactly like his own.

_We'll be alright_, he thought,and then he was gone.

* * *

When he walked into the Great Hall, his face covered in grime and sweat and blood, and saw his family sitting around a table, his first thought was that someone had died. He brushed it off though, telling himself what he'd been telling himself the past hour, what Fred had told him to tell himself.

He walked up to them, looking for the one person he wanted to see most. He wasn't standing there, he soon realized. Maybe he'd gone to help clear up.

But why was his mother shaking like that? Why did his dad have tears streaming down his face, leaving streaky marks in the dirt that was caked there? Why were Ginny and Fleur and Hermione all crying? Why was Percy curled up in a ball on the floor? Why were all his other brothers clutching each other, or the women there?

He walked over, scared, really, properly scared, for the first time that night. A pit was forming in his stomach, and the lump was in his throat again. They all fell quiet as he approached. They all looked at him, and he met Charlie's eyes. Charlie's sad, tortured eyes. They bore into his, and then looked away. He walked closer, and he saw him.

It was a joke, he thought. Just an elaborate joke. A really stupid, disgusting one for that matter. Because Fred couldn't be gone, couldn't be dead. _He_ was the one that had said they'd all be alright, that they'd all be there.

He was in a trance as he walked up to his twin, and stared down into the once sparkling, mischievous eyes that were now empty. He was in a trance when he was guided into a chair at Fred's head.

He didn't cry, because he couldn't believe it. _They'd_ _be alright, they'd come back_. He stared at the body, expecting to feel something, anything, except the numb nothing that was there. He remembered the last few moments they'd had before the battle started, he remembered Fred's voice telling him it would be alright, that there was no need to say Goodbye when he tried to.

"_There's no need to say it George. We'll all be alright. We'll come back. Once it's over. We _will_ come back, Georgie_." He heard him say it as if he were right there, and he looked around, searching for the source of the voice that he longed to hear. When he looked down, he was there, silent, un-moving, the ghost of a smile still on his freckled face.

And then he looked into his blank, empty eyes and the truth came crashing down on him; Fred was gone. Gone. Gone forever, and he hadn't even said goodbye.

And as the first, glistening tear spilled out of his eyes, he felt strangely empty, as if he didn't have any insides anymore. He was a shell, he realized, part of him wasn't there, because part of him had left that night, not so long ago.

* * *

**I think that's how I'd feel if I lost my brother...**

**Please REVIEW! They're like extra-special treats... they make my day when I get them! **

**xxxxxxx**

**BErin**


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